ساختار دولت و بازارگرایی فرودگاه ها در مناطق پیرامونی در اروپا

This paper investigates the relationship between governance structures and the market orientation of airports. The focus is on Europe's peripheral areas, where airports tend to be publicly owned and operated as an independent entity or as part of a regional or national airport system. This paper finds that market orientation is significantly higher at independently operated airports compared to system-operated airports and that independent governance structures, market opportunities and competitive intensity have a significant positive effect on airport market orientation.

The provision of air services in Europe's peripheral areas was traditionally protected because in exchange for monopoly rights on dense and profitable routes, national airlines or their subsidiaries would serve lightly populated and unprofitable routes such as those serving Europe's peripheral areas (Williams, 2002). European air transport markets were deregulated by April 1997, and although some routes in Europe's peripheral areas are protected by Public Service Obligations, airlines have more freedom to enter and exit markets. This means that market forces rather than public service considerations increasingly dictate the decisions of airlines serving peripheral areas (Reynolds-Feighan, 1995). Market advocates support market-orientated management practices as a means of satisfying airline customers arguing that airports that are more market orientated than rivals will perform better. The relationship between market orientation and the performance of airports in Europe's peripheral areas, for example, was investigated by Halpern and Pagliari (2007) who, based on a survey of the opinions of 84 airport managers, found that market orientation has a significant positive effect on performance. Advani and Borins (2001), using data from a worldwide sample of 201 airports, found that privately owned airports have significantly higher levels of market orientation than publicly owned airports and that private ownership has a significant positive effect on market orientation, demonstrating that airport ownership can influence the extent to which an airport is market orientated which, as Halpern and Pagliari found, can affect performance. While airport privatisation is becoming more common in Europe (Bentley, 2002), very few airports in Europe's peripheral areas have followed the trend. Public ownership, at national, regional or local level, is still the norm so the public versus private debate is not particularly relevant. Instead, airports in Europe's peripheral areas can be compared according to whether they are operated as an independent entity or as part of a regional or national airport system (Pagliari, 2005). This work investigates the relationship between governance structures and the market orientation of airports in Europe's peripheral areas, and in particular, investigates differences in the market orientation of independently operated airports versus system-operated airports. The paper also investigates the effect that independent governance structures have on the market orientation of airports.

This paper shows that a relationship exists between governance structures and the market orientation of airports in Europe's peripheral areas with levels of market orientation being significantly higher at airports that are independently operated and with independent governance structures having a significant positive effect on market orientation. The latter is particularly important because earlier studies found that market orientation at the same airports has a significant positive effect on performance.